Vacation 2017: Day One

For the first time since I've been a Gee, and only the second or third time EVER, the Gee family reunion wasn't held in Idaho.  It was held in Monterey, California.  David's cousin who was in charge of the reunion this time, lives in California and warned us two years ago to start saving up because she was hosting it in her home state.  So we did.  And we're sure glad because it was a BLAST!!

The drive from Layton to Monterey is roughly 13 hours long.  We originally planned on taking two days to drive it, but at the last minute we decided to just push through in one long chunk.  It was a good move!  It really wasn't too bad (thanks to my over-the-top planning, which I'll describe in a second) and it freed up one extra day for us to enjoy in California.

We woke up very early on Wednesday.  We were on the road by 5:15.  I had everything all mapped out.  Literally. I printed a map of our drive, laminated it, and referred to it often as we drove so that our kids could follow our progress.

I also printed and laminated a schedule.  We drove for roughly two hour chunks.  Then, we'd stop somewhere for about a half hour.  We'd try to find a park or a place to run around and a restroom. When we got back in the van, the kids rotated seats according to the schedule I created.  Some seating arrangements were better than others, but they all survived - knowing that they would rotate again in a couple of hours.

It was a beautiful day.  And we saw lots of cool scenery.  I should have taken more pictures of the variety of scenery we covered in a single day.  Oops.  At least I grabbed a photo of the concrete tree near Wendover.

The Salt flats at sunrise.  Lovely!

The kids did a really great job of staying positive and helpful throughout the drive.  I had plenty of snacks and treats (also passed out on a schedule) and lots of things to entertain them.  I purchased fidget spinners for each kid.  They knew that I'd purchased them months in advance, but they didn't get to have them until the day of our trip. The boys were especially excited to have them.  I also got a spot-things-on-the-road card game, a book of vacation madlibs that we did together as a family, sticker books for each child, tablets for everyone, several hank Smith CDs from the library (and another story that turned out to be a dud), and I surprised the kids by purchasing the complete first season of "Batman: Brave and the Bold" on DVD.  It's a show that they used to love, but haven't seen in years.  It was fun to watch, and the episodes were only a half hour, so we could fit them in to short spaces of time. Nobody was bored.  That's for sure.

We stopped in Wendover and played at a park for a few minutes.  Then we stopped in Elko for a quick gas station stop.  Next was Winnemucca for lunch at Burger King (with a play land for the boys).  The next stop was Reno for gas.  It was HOT there!  After Reno, the scenery changed dramatically.  The mountains were lovely.  After the mountains, we descended into California.  We stopped quickly in Sacramento, then drove on to San Jose.  We ate dinner at a KFC there.  Josh commented to me, "People look different in California than they do in Utah." I had to laugh at that comment - we were clearly eating at a KFC in the China Town district of San Jose.  From there, it was only a couple of hours to Monterey.  I LOVED seeing all the farms and all the fruit stands in this area.  In some places, I could literally smell the garlic in the air as we passed by the garlic farms.  It was awesome!  We hit the coast literally minutes after the sun set.  We found our hotel around 9:00 pm.  Let me pause here to say that I can't even IMAGINE making this drive without Google maps.  It would show us when there were traffic delays ahead of us, estimate how long they would take to get through, showed us nearby restaurants and gas stations when we needed them, and directed us straight to our hotel!  It's amazing!

We stayed at the Bayview Hotel.  It wasn't a luxury hotel, but it was great for our group!  I slept in one room with the girls and Quinton.  David slept in another with the two older boys.  We all slept really well. It's amazing how sitting around in a car all day can make you so exhausted.  We had a long day, but it was exciting and fun and we were all really pumped for the coming days!

Girls Camp

This was the first year that our girls got to go together to girls' camp.  They had so much fun (I think - I wasn't there).  There was a bit of drama with the leaders, but I don't think the young women even knew about it. So even though it was pretty rough for my friend, the YW president, the girls had a blast.

The drama involved an unsanctioned, leader-led expedition to "prank" the priesthood men who were there by covering their tent site with maxi pads and ketchup. Have I said too much? Because I'm leaving out a lot! Suffice it to say, the leaders who led the expedition got in trouble.  And those leaders didn't take it too maturely.  It was a mess. The girls involved were mostly Beehives.  However, I'm proud to say that one of the Beehive leaders grabbed me a week or two after camp and said, "I just want you to know that Nicole was with those "pranksters," but she left when she saw what they were doing.  She said, 'I'm not doing that!' and she stayed with me for the rest of the night."  Nicole was pretty brave, being the youngest one there, to stand up for what she knew was right.  Enough about that unpleasantness.  Let's look at pictures of my cute girls!

It was just our ward this year - which is the way we like it!  We have a great group of young women.
Back row: Zoe Meecham, Jade Williams, Ali, Olivia Shelley, Ellie Lundgreen, Cassie Mertens, Breanna Mertens. Middle Row: Bailey Chatelain, Bailey's friend whom I don't know, Jessica Wiedeman, Jordyn Williams, Nicole, Gabby Loera.  Front: Charly Stevens.

I think Nicole was the newest Beehive.  She was pretty nervous-cited to go.  

They had some team-building activities, etc.  (that is Ali on the right)

and plenty of time to hang out and bond.

The three amigas.  I wonder what Jordyn is saying...look at the other two girls' faces!  Ha ha!

Klarissa Hugh and Alison protecting dinner from the rain.  

Arts and crafts

I never made anything that cute when I went to girls camp.  My girls' camp crafts were like plastic-bead-and-feather-boondoggles!

An evening skit.  Alison is in the middle.

Bonding around the campfire.  My two daughters are in front here - Alison in the black and Nicole with the French braid.  

Randomness

Just going through my pictures form July...

We never miss the chance for a free Chick-Fil-A meal.  Never!

Nicki hangin' with her peeps - Moana and Wonder Woman

Which one is the super hero?  Which one is the princess? Alison - that's who.

Kristin's family got a new puppy named Finn.  He's the exact opposite of their other dog, Beau. Beau is a huge, black poodle.  Finn's a Teensy white West Highland Terrier.   

McKenna is over-the-moon in love with him.  It's pretty cute. 

The girls and I met him at the 24th of July Taste of the Town celebration in Layton.  He was a big hit!  The boys met him a few weeks later when Kristin's family brought him over for a visit.  They LOVED him.  Quinton loved him and was terrified of him at the same time.  It was hilarious to watch Quin try so hard to get the dog's attention, then run for his life once he had it.  The look of joy/terror on his face was priceless.

This was the summer of slime at our house.  Nicole was obsessed with it!  She used some of her babysitting money to buy the ingredients and made about a million batches of the stuff.  Every time I turned around, she was dirtying more dishes...I mean ...having more fun.  Bronson is modeling one of her batches. 

David took these pictures when he took the girls to the Ogden Temple to do baptisms for the dead.  

The Big 4-0!

This is probably bad of me, but I've been warning David for a YEAR that I wanted him to do something spectacular for me on my 40th birthday.  Seriously - since I turned 39.  I felt like 40 was a big deal and I didn't want him to treat it like any other birthday, so I flat-out told him to start saving up.  I said, "Like bouncy-house-and-pony-rides-big!"  I think it was incredibly kind of me as a woman to spell out exactly what I wanted so that he wasn't stuck with a blubbery, disappointed wife on his hands, don't you?

So, anyways...after a year of planning, I had a wonderful birthday weekend!  My parents took all five of our kids for two nights so David and I could get away.  How awesome is that?!?!  The weekend was looking good already!  David and I went to the Bountiful temple on Thursday afternoon.  It was the perfect way to begin the weekend.  We went straight from there to The Mandarin, a popular Chinese restaurant that we'd never been to.  When I say I ordered well, I mean I NAILED it!  The waitress told me about an "off the menu" item that she loves.  I think I actually startled people with my cry of joy when I took the first bite. It was that good!  David's food was delicious too.  We loved that meal!

After dinner, we checked into our hotel.  We had planned on spending the weekend in Salt Lake City, but decided that Station Park in Farmington was just as fun, the hotel was newer than most in Salt Lake, and it was cheaper.  What a pretty hotel it was!  

This is the view of Station Park that we had from our room.  Lovely!  

The hotel is really only a year or so old.  Everything was so nice!

Even the bathroom was pretty!

We went to the movie that night.  We watched "Spiderman."  Super fun!

The next day, after sleeping in (WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?!?!? I haven't slept in since Alison was born!) and eating a delicious breakfast at the hotel, David took me to Salt Lake City to go for a walk he'd been wanting to take me on.  We had a good time chatting as we walked.  David had been listening to a book on tape that he told me all about. It was very interesting. 

After a while, we came to this suspension bridge.  It was a bit unsettling to me.  But I made it across.   

Then, out of nowhere, we were in China.  

Just kidding.  We were in some cultural center.  We explored it for a while.  

And tried for about 5 minutes to get a good selfie with this statue.  As you can see, it didn't work.

After our walk, we went back to Station Park and saw another movie.  This time it was Wonder Woman (she's the one with the sword).  We counted the bucket of popcorn as our lunch.  

When the movie ended, David gave me my biggest birthday present of all.  He went shopping with me.  We walked around Station Park and went wherever I wanted to go.  He even watched me try on a bunch of clothes and helped me pick out a cute shirt or two.  Wow!  Now that's love!

We ate at Parkstone that night.  I got my favorite thing there - the barbecue chicken salad.  I couldn't eat the whole thing, but that was okay because our room had a fridge so I saved it for later.  Man! is it delightful!  Every bite is like a gift to your mouth!

Dave got this outrageous sandwich.  It was tasty.

Saturday was my actual birthday.  I might have been been pretty sad about leaving the hotel and returning to normal life, but I wasn't returning to normal life - I was returning to my birthday party!  We slept in again, ate yummy breakfast at the hotel again, I went shopping again while David packed up, then we checked out.  We met my whole family at the pool.  My brother-in-law, Scot has a birthday the day before mine, so this was a combined party for the two of us.  We swam, and had lunch there at the pool (delicious,but expensive, so very rare!) What fun!  

Instead of a birthday cake this year, we decided to do something extra special and dear to my heart.  We went and got snow cones!  It was so fun!  And refreshing!  It was the perfect end to a perfect birthday weekend.  I think 40 is going to be a good year!  

Pearl

I must admit, I've never liked our red van.  From the day we got it, Josh started getting carsick every time he stepped into it.  Nicole did too.  I wonder if it was the angle of the seats, tinting on the windows, or what? Whatever it was, there was a marked difference in the amount of nausea in my children between our green van and the red one.  I never even named the poor thing!  How insensitive of me!  But we never really got along.  David was not happy that I didn't love her, but I just couldn't muster up any affection - no matter how hard I tried.  Plus, in the last year or two, she cost us a pretty penny in repairs. She was pushing 200,000 miles.  We knew she was on her last legs.  It was only a matter of time until she died. My parents ALWAYS offered to drive if we went anywhere so that they wouldn't have to get stuck on the road if she died, and they casually dropped hints that it might be a good idea for us to rent a vehicle when we drove to California later in the summer.

In early July, the A/C went out.  Plus, there was a crazy noise coming from the depths of the engine.  So we took her into our favorite local shop.  They took a look under the hood, and called us with the bad news.  There were multiple problems with the old gal.  It would cost thousands - literally thousands - of dollars for us to fix her.  And who knew how long it would be until she busted something else? It was time to say goodbye. I know it was the Lord blessing me so that we didn't get stranded in the middle of a crowded California freeway a few weeks later.

The old, nameless beast.

That meant car shopping.  Is there anything in this world more tedious, time consuming, life-sucking, and rage-inducing than car shopping?  I can think of nothing.  Wait...maybe potty training...

Anyway...we went car shopping.  I cried on the first day.  Cars are so expensive!  On the second day (the 4th of July) David and I went together.  It was less painful when he was there to share the sticker shock with me.  By the end of the day, we pretty much had it narrowed down to one or two cars.

On July 5th, Alison watched the boys while Nicole and I went car shopping.  I will not bore you with the intricate details, but after a very long day (did I mention I hate car shopping?), test driving a couple more vans, waiting in a car showroom for hours, making several calls back-and-forth to David while he was at work, and feeling like we were financially accosted, we came home with the most gorgeous white minivan you've ever seen!

I really love her.  She's no spring chicken, but she has pretty low miles and she purrs like a kitten.  She's got a dvd player, a fancy touch-screen computer, and fully-functioning air conditioning!  We named her Pearl.  Her full name is "The Pearl of Great Price" for two reasons: we sold everything we have to posses her and we've cast her before swine (our grubby little munchkins) who trample her under their feet!  I'm writing this entry almost two months later, and I still smile every time I climb into her!  Pearl and I are BFFs!

4th of July 2017

We had a pretty great 4th of July this year.  It started with the annual parade fun! We went to Layton's parade.

I think I have a picture just like this - of my girls waving at the floats - from every year of their lives.  

Alison was super excited to see her school's entries go by.  Especially this one because one of her best friends was on it.  As luck would have it, we sat right next to one of her other best friends and her family.  So Alison had a great time at the parade! 

This is cute Bronson wearing a hat because I had just recently shaved all the red out of his hair and his bald head would get sunburned.  The kids got a TON of candy, as usual.  Bronson was the most generous about sharing with his parents.

What made this year extra special is that Katie and her family joined us!  Adam didn't really wear my straw hat for very long, but long enough for me to snap a cute picture of him!  He made it through most of the parade.  He is such a cute boy!

Katie.  And if you look closely between her fingers, you can see Megan too.
  

When Adam had had enough of the parade, his family went over to the splash pad next to the Kaysville library.  They texted us and said, "We are the only people here!  We have the whole place to ourselves!  Come!"  So we did.  We went home, changed the boys into their swimming suits, made a little picnic, and went.

We seriously were the only people there!  The Kaysville parade are still going and everyone was there!  We think we've found a new Independence Day tradition - go to the splash pad while everyone else cooks in the heat of the Kaysville parade!

David and I spent the afternoon van shopping, but that's a story of another day.

That evening, we went to my parent's house to watch the fireworks.  We decided that Quinton was finally old enough to stay up late.  This meant that it was David's first time watching the fireworks too - he usually goes home with the sleeping babies.

My boys watching the neighborhood fireworks while waiting for the big show. Payton brought a lot - and let the boys help him light a few.  He also gave everyone sparklers.  There were only a few near-death experiences, so I'm calling it a win!

The girls, McKenna, and Grandma Church.

Gpa and muscle-man David!

Josh was so cute during the big firework show.  He would walk around to each person and whisper in their ear, "This next firework is for you!"  Then he would watch it and say, "Ooh!  Your firework was pretty!" or something to that effect.  He was so excited!